


For the Love of You

by NotInPublic



Category: The Last Kingdom (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-11
Updated: 2020-06-11
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:46:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24669358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NotInPublic/pseuds/NotInPublic
Summary: Eadith knows exactly what she wants, and it's a handsom - if perhaps overly happy to please - Irishman.
Relationships: Eadith/Finan (The Last Kingdom)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 52





	For the Love of You

Eadith smiled as she watched the back of Finan's retreating head. Shaking her own as she closed the door, a chuckle escaped her lips. She wasn't sure exactly when it had begun, but perhaps the game had gone on for long enough now.

Just this week, she had tasked him to mend a broken fence in the paddock adjacent to her small cottage, to round up a gaggle of escaped geese and had sent him to the market to barter for the freshest hens eggs. The latest task, to fetch a sack of flour from the village store was perhaps unnecessary. But Eadith couldn't help herself.

She had never had a man so pliable to her whims before. At first it had been essential, as she had recovered from her accidental run-in with battle in Winchester. Then, it had become a novelty to have someone on hand to eagerly help with the most basic of tasks. Recently, however, Eadith was simply seeing how far she could push her luck before Finan finally reached the end of his good will.

Though, if she had expected him to baulk at any of the numerous tasks she had set him, she was to be dissapointed. He had nodded eagerly when she had asked him to help carry the milk destined to become cheese to the Shepard's wife. Similarly, he had sat patiently as he helped her sort her embroidery threads into their respective colours, each strand seemingly impossibly small in his hands. 

The biggest shock, however, was the realisation that she gained no feeling of triumph whenever he agreed to her wishes. Each time she had been taken and used by a man more powerful than herself in the past, she had wished for a day when she would hold that kind of power. How good it would feel to bend a man to her will and make him feel helpless against her wishes.

With Finan, she found she had that. She hardly needed open her mouth and he was ready to help. Yet rather than triumph, she found she felt only warmth and gratitude at his openness and willingness to please. It was refreshing in the most unexpected of ways.

Indeed, rather than revelling in the possession as she had dreamed she would, she felt only the need to reciprocate. While the paddock fence had been mended, she had found herself making stew to thank Finan for his help. Again, once her threads had been sorted, it was one of Finan's tunics that she set to embellishing. The flour he had been sent out to retrieve was, unbeknownst to him, destined to become his favourite loaf.

Indeed, rather than selfishly taking as she had once believed she would, she had begun meeting every kindness with a kindness of her own. Their days had become so interwoven that Eadith could no longer tell who was more eager to seek the other out each morning.

She had reached this final thought as a soft rap on the front door pulled her from her musings. Straightening the front of her skirts, she looked up in time to see Finan's head peeking around the frame.

"Here's the flour you were asking for." He smiled before depositing the sack next to the hearth and tucking his thumbs into his belt, rocking awkwardly on the balls of his feet.

"Thank you" Eadith smiled warmly in response, and at the sight of him lingering on the threshold.

"Well I guess I'll be off then" he nodded towards the path outside "Unless there was anything else you were wanting?"

Eadith's heart swelled at the hopeful glint in his eye. "No, that's all. I don't need anything else today."

"Right. I'll, ah, pop by tomorrow then." He murmered, turning to leave.

At his slightly slumped shoulders, Eadith let out a small laugh. Confused by her amusement, Finan paused.

"Just because I don't need anything else, doesn't mean I want you to leave" she grinned, pulling out a stool from under the table "stay. Please" she added, as he made no effort to move away from the doorway.

Closing the gap between them, Eadith took Finan's hand in her own. Calluses against smooth skin, she marveled at the strength in his hands and at the gentleness with which he held hers.

While he had been gone, she realised that were they ever to move past simply completing favours for one another, she would have to make the first move. Finan's was either blind to her affections, or too nervous of her refusal to push things further. She pushed the thought that perhaps he was simply being kind in the face of her previous misfortunates and that he didn't really care for her, to the back of her mind. This was a leap of faith she was willing to make.

"If you stopped rushing around for a second, you might have time to realise I enjoy having you around. This house feels more of a home when you're here."

She pushed him gently onto the stool so that she could look into his eyes.

"I was wondering, perhaps, if you might like to spend a little more time here. Lodging at the hall can't be the most comfortable of arrangements."

"Eadith." Finan began, before pausing as if weighing his next words carefully. She crossed her fingers behind her back in the hope she wasn't about to have her offer rejected.

"You mean, to stay here? With you?" Finan's expression was dumbfounded and Eadith couldn't help but smile.

"Well I don't mean outside with the animals of that's what you're asking" she grinned in reply.

"To help around the house? I, um, I noticed another fence that could do with mending before the autumn comes" Finan began babbling in the way Eadith had become to recognise as nervousness.

"No Finan" she cut him off gently "I mean stay like this." 

Eadith lent forward then,and brushed her lips against his own, lips curling upwards at his shocked intake of breath and his hands that moved instinctively to her waist. Being held by him was even better than she hoped it would be.

After a heartbeat of shocked hesitation, Finan met her kiss with his own and it was like being consumed by the fire that had been kindling inside her over the past weeks. 

Unlike all the times she had been touched and kissed and used against her wishes, this was entirely the opposite. She wanted this, wanted more, wanted him.

Breaking their kiss reluctantly, she gasped slightly for breath and was gratified to see Finan's chest moving heavily too, a flush brightening his skin.

"Actually, I was wrong earlier" she tilted her head slightly as she tucked a strand of slightly overgrown hair behind his ear "there is something else I need."

"Name it." He answered breathlessly and a thrill shuddered through her at his words.

"I find myself in need of a husband. Do you know anyone who might be suitable?" Her eyes met his and her stomach flipped.

"I think I might" his smile matched Eadith's, taking her hand in his own again "I think I just might."


End file.
